Louise
Pitre, who now belts out ABBA songs to rave reviews from New York theatre-goers
and critics, was once headed for a career as a high school music teacher
in small-town Ontario.

It was just such a
teacher  Cheryl David  who set her on a different and more
spectacular path.

"It was incredible,
unselfish giving on her part," says Louise Pitre today. What David
gave was time and encouragement, helping Pitre to pack years of music
theory and practice into just two years, so that she could qualify for
the University of Western Ontarios music program.

Until Grade 11, Pitre
had played piano just for fun, starting as a child of seven at her mothers
suggestion.

"I think she
asked me because it was something she would have liked to have done. But
she was from a very poor family in northern Quebec and they never could
afford a piano."

"I just went
crazy," she says, relishing the memory. "I would be at the piano
downstairs and my mother would have to say Louise, come for dinner.
Come o-o-on," she mimics, laughing.

Cheryl David

Piano lessons with
a neighbourhood music teacher were not sophisticated. "She taught
strictly from lead sheets," says Pitre. "All you have is the
melody line for the right hand and chord symbols above those notes. So,
with the left hand, I was just going oom chunk, oom chunk."

It was, though, a
great way to learn because "right away I was playing songs I knew
and that was exciting for me."

All this had happened
in Montreal, where the family had moved from her birthplace in Smooth
Rock, Ontario. In 1970, the Pitres returned to Ontario, this time to Welland.
Thirteen-year-old Louise entered the bilingual École secondaire
Confederation in Grade 9, where she learned English. She performed at
school assemblies and occassionally on "an old clunker" in a
room off the gym.

"The room was
full of equipment and this piano was stuck in there. I would stand against
the wall (there was almost no room for me) and play Elton John and Carole
King  my heroes."

Two years later, a
new music program and teacher at the school made a profound difference
on her lifes direction.

"There was a
brand new music room in a new wing of the school. They were actually in
there playing trumpets and clarinets and stuff."

But Pitres instrument
was not the piano. "It was the first time I ever played the trumpet.
But it went well so, in Grade 12, my parents bought me my own instrument
for my birthday and I got to be first trumpet in the band. It was great."

The teacher was Cheryl
David who played clarinet (and just about every other instrument). She
was "incredibly accessible and amazingly excited about what she was
doing," says Pitre. "The fact that she could pick up anybodys
instrument and play it was so impressive to me."

Pitre remembers telling
David that she wanted to study music at university. When she made inquiries,
the information she got back was a shock. "I had to have Grade 9
Conservatory and Harmony," subjects she had barely heard of.

But David was undaunted.
"She said, If you want to do this seriously, weve got
to get you organized. She gave me her old music books." She
also helped find a new piano teacher who could bring Pitre up to Grade
9 level in piano, for her university audition.

"Basically I
had two years to do all this," recalls Pitre. "After school,
Cheryl David taught me the harmony and theory I needed to pass the exams
and saw me through the entire thing. I passed!"

During her four years
at the University of Western Ontario, Pitre auditioned for a musical and
got the part. It was then that Pitre decided "This is what I want
to do," and a career was launched!

Recently, after 33
years, Cheryl David retired. She remembers Pitre as "an exceptional,
exceptional student. There was no one else like her." She is thrilled
at Pitres success and modest about the part she played in it. "She
has God-given talent, I just helped to guide her on the right path."

Pitre is adamant that
Cheryl David made a significant difference to her career. "Cheryl
David was huge in my formation as a singer. She was absolutely the first
one to give me what I needed to get where I am."

A few years ago when
asked to do a concert at the church Église Sacré Coeur in
Welland, Pitre asked Cheryl David to play clarinet. She also took that
opportunity to thank her former teacher in public. "I just talked
about her first and then invited her up. She was so nervous, she was shaking."
Pitre recalls. We performed Someone to Watch Over Me together  I
sang and she played this nice solo, then we finished together. It was
great."

Pitre expects to
continue in Mamma Mia! in New York for a few more years and will
soon start rehearsing for another project  a remake of Sweeney
Todd with the Calgary Opera Company scheduled for 2004.